What is CircuitMaker? CircuitMaker is a powerful, yet easy to use, schematic capture and digital logic simulation program. CircuitMaker's user-friendly interface allows you to quickly and easily draw, modify and combine analog and digital circuit diagrams. Its powerful built-in digital logic simulation capability can save you time and money by allowing you to check your designs before you build them. CircuitMaker's many unique features help relieve the frustration encountered by circuit designers and encourage creativity and exploration. System Requirements - IBM or compatible computer running Windows 3.1 or greater. - 2MB or more of free disk space. - VGA (or higher) resolution video card and monitor. Installation To install the CircuitMaker demo on your hard disk perform the following steps: 1. Go to DOS and create a directory called CIRMAKER. 2. Unzip CIRMAKER.ZIP into the just created directory. 3. Run Windows. 4. Open an existing Program Group and proceed to Step 5, or, to create a new Program Group perform the following steps: A. Go to the Program Manager's FILE Menu. B. Select NEW. C. Select PROGRAM GROUP, answer OK. D. Enter "CircuitMaker" for DESCRIPTION. E. Leave GROUP FILE blank. F. Click OK 5. Go to the Program Manager's FILE Menu and select NEW. 6. Select PROGRAM ITEM and click OK. 7. Enter "[PATH]\CIRMAKER.EXE" (ie. C:\CIRMAKER\CIRMAKER.EXE) after COMMAND LINE. 8. Then enter "[PATH]" (ie. C:\CIRMAKER) after WORKING DIRECTORY. 9. Click OK. Once CircuitMaker has been installed, it can be executed by double- clicking on the CircuitMaker Icon. Getting Started To draw a circuit diagram, you simply use the mouse to select devices from the library and to connect wires between the devices. Features such as a unique wiring cursor and smart wires simplify the task of drawing any circuit. Editing features such as rubberband move of wires and devices, cut, copy and paste, the ability to rotate and mirror devices, and the ability to spread the circuit out over several pages, further simplify the circuit drawing process. Drawing a Schematic To begin, go to the File menu and open the file labeled "SCHEMA.CIR". A simple, partially drawn schematic will appear on your screen. Click and drag an LED from the L1 (Library 1) pull down menu. Place the LED above and to the right of the inverter. Select the Wiring Cursor (or Alt. W) from the Toolbar and center it on the output pin of the switch. Click once and move the wiring cursor horizontally. Position the center point of the wiring cursor over the input pin of the inverter. Double-click the mouse to connect the wire. A round pin dot will appear at each end of the wire to confirm the connection. Position the wiring cursor over the output pin of the inverter. Click once and move the cursor horizontally to the right to begin drawing a wire to the LED. You will notice the extended cursor is automatically activated. This allows you to align the placement of the wire with the LED input pin. When the extended cursor indicates the alignment is correct with the LED input pin, click the mouse once to change the direction the wire is being drawn. You don't need to be exact when aligning the wire and LED input pin. CircuitMaker has a feature called "Smart Wires" which automatically adjusts the wire, connecting it to the closest input pin. "Smart Wires" makes its adjustment following the double-click which ends the wire. Continue drawing a wire to the LED input pin, then double-click to connect and complete the wire. Editing Features CircuitMaker has a feature known as a "rubberband move". This allows the user to move a device or wire, while still maintaining full circuit connectivity. To accomplish this, select the Arrow Tool (Alt. A) from the Toolbar. Select the LED or any other device in the sample circuit, drag it to a new location and drop it. From the Toolbar select the Delete icon (Alt. D). Place the tip of the Delete Tool on a device or wire and click. The Delete Tool enables you to delete unwanted wires, devices and text, quickly and easily. To undelete, type Ctrl+Z. CircuitMaker allows you to place multi-line, fully stylized text anywhere in the schematic. To place text, click on the Text icon (Alt. T) in the Toolbar, move the cursor to the desired location and click to create a text field. These are the basics of drawing a schematic within the CircuitMaker environment. With CircuitMaker, drawing schematics can be fast, flexible and fun. Simulation Overview One of the most powerful features of CircuitMaker is its ability to simulate the digital portion of your design. This enables you to detect and correct design errors prior to investing time and money in the construction of actual hardware prototypes. Simulation is completely live, meaning the circuit responds immediately to changes from input stimulus and the operation of the circuit is shown on the screen as it happens. Simulating a Circuit Go to the File menu and open the CircuitMaker file labeled "SIM.CIR". On your screen you will observe three simple circuits. They are designed to introduce you to the simulation features of CircuitMaker. To start a simulation, click on the Run icon in the Toolbar. To stop a simulation, click on the Stop Sign icon that replaced the Run icon in the Toolbar. To reset the circuit to the starting state, click on the Reset icon in the Toolbar. Start the simulation by clicking on the Run icon (or F5) in the Toolbar. Toggle the position of the switch in the sample circuit by clicking on it. Operation of the circuit can be observed in four ways: 1. Select the Probe Tool (Alt. P) from the Toolbar and touch the tip of it on any wire. The triangle indicator in the Probe tool indicates the respective high or low state of the wire being probed. If no triangle appears, this indicates an unknown state. A wire can be probed while the simulation is running or after it has stopped. The tip of the Probe tool can be used as a pointer to toggle the position of a switch. When clicked on a wire, it will toggle the state of the wire. 2. Circuit operation can be observed by connecting any of a variety of LED displays and then monitoring the conditions shown on them. Observe the LED's in the simulation circuit. 3. Enable the "Trace" feature by clicking on the Trace icon (Ctrl. T) in the Toolbar. The state of every wire in the circuit is shown simultaneously as the simulation runs. In this mode wires at a logic one are shown as red, wires at a logic zero as blue, and wires at an unknown or tri-state as green. 4. Any number of oscilloscope probes (found in L1, "Scope") can be connected at any point in the circuit, thus causing the timing diagrams for those nodes to be shown in a separate Waveforms window. To observe the timing diagrams, click on the Waveforms icon (Ctrl. W) in the Toolbar. A separate Waveforms window will appear. Stop the simulation by clicking on the Stop Sign icon (or F5) that replaced the Run icon in the Toolbar. CircuitMaker gives the user the option of setting breakpoints. To accomplish this, click once on the A1 breakpoint rectangle at the left of the Waveforms window. Click twice on the A2 breakpoint rectangle. By leaving the A3 breakpoint rectangle unaltered it will have no effect on the breakpoint. Reset the simulation by clicking on the Reset icon in the Toolbar (or F4). Then click the Run icon (or F5) to start the simulation. The simulation will halt at the specified breakpoint. The right edge of the Waveforms window is the point where the actual breakpoint is registered. Click several times on the Step icon (or F6) in the Toolbar to advance the Waveforms one tick at a time. As you do this you will notice that the circuit did stop when the specified condition occurred. Its Expandable! CircuitMaker is expandable because it enables you to create your own completely functional devices and nonfunctional device symbols. You can either design your own package for a macro or choose one that CircuitMaker provides. In addition, macros can be recalled from the library, expanded, edited and resaved at any time. With the Arrow Tool (Alt. A), select the device on your screen labeled Macro. Select the "Expand Macro" command in the Macros menu. Your screen will be cleared and the macro will be expanded revealing its internal circuitry. Select the device labeled Macro 2 and expand this macro. As you can see, CircuitMaker allows you to create nested macros. Thank you for your time. We have highlighted only a few of CircuitMakers features. We hope you will take some additional time to explore and test this powerful software. We hope you have enjoyed you CircuitMaker experience. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact us. Ordering Information The complete CircuitMaker program is in the file you downloaded. This powerful program is only $199 and can be yours in minutes. We accept VISA, MasterCard or American Express. Call us at (801)226-4470 and you will receive an Access Code that will allow you to immediately use the complete CircuitMaker program. We will promptly send a comprehensive user manual and user registration information. See for yourself why students, hobbyists, and professionals around the globe are using CircuitMaker. Registered User Support We offer our registered users free, unlimited technical phone support from experienced engineers. Registered users also receive substantially discounted upgrades. CircuitMaker is a registered trademark of MicroCode Engineering. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. MicroCode Engineering 1943 North 205 West Orem, UT 84057 U.S.A. Phone (801) 226-4470 FAX (801) 226-6532